Back in May, one of the regulars on the Exalted Funeral Discord put out a call for an artist to “draw a really shitty small wizards tower.” Something about that captured our communal imagination, and so “The Power of Glowering Towers Jam 2020” was born.

In a fit of unexpected energy, I pulled out a big piece of 18×24″ paper and started sketching out a dilapidated wizard’s tower. Originally, I had intended to fill each floor with some strange room: a bizarre menagerie, a lab, astronomy tower, bed chamber, or what have you. But I realized I’d be limiting whoever wanted to use the tower to the rooms I chose (not to mention how much tiny detail I would have to draw). So, I decided to leave the rooms empty, and come up with a d66 table of suggested rooms. Whoever wanted to use the still-shitty tower, could choose any rooms from my list or make up their own. And, for the artistically-inclined, they could draw in their own scenes. Ideally their talent would surpass mine, and they could come up with some cool adventures.

So I published this “Roll Your Own Wizard’s Tower” pamphlet last week.

smaller reproduction of pamphlet

The rooms ended up being a combination of some of my original ideas, and riffing on rooms from an old English-style manor house.

It was a fun and quick little project, and really the first thing I ever really put out there. (I worked on another project last fall that probably won’t see the light of day, but may get pieced out here over time). My shitty tower is available for free on itch.io. If you find a use for it, let me know!

Previously published on www.scopsong.com